“She has the fire of humans within her,” Josh placidly said. “It allows her to be passionate about many things.”
“Maybe in some cases.” I leaned back in my desk chair, making the leather sigh. “But I suspect this grudge of hers has been nursed along because she’s suffered a lot of betrayal recently.” I narrowed my eyes at my desk. “She’s known since the day she left Drake Hall that I was sending her off for her own good. And I suspect she knew the Paragon didn’t drop by House Medeis when she was fighting Mason because he thought he should pay a social call.”
“Perhaps someone ratted you out,” Josh said.
“Of course they did,” I snorted. “It’s why I put all the bleeding hearts on guard rotation for her street. I thought Julianne was my surest shot, but I don’t know for certain it was she who told Hazel about the raid we pulled off on the Night Court…”
“Even though Hazel knows your motivations, she’s still angry with you,” Josh said. I think he thought he was helping me organize my thoughts, but instead a dagger to my side would have been more comfortable.
“I’m not in that position all by my lonesome,” I reminded him. “She’s furious with you and Celestina as well.”
“Indeed. Celestina assured me she had a plan to worm her way back into Hazel’s good graces after she left, but apparently she was out maneuvered.”
I shrugged a little. If I was going to be in the wizard’s bad graces, I might as well have some company. “You are here to report on Gavino, I assume?”
“As you requested, yes.” Josh straightened his shoulders. “He is up and walking around. It’s been recommended that he refrain from training for at least two days, and no strenuous work outs for a week.”
“Good. Make sure he and Julianne are kept off guard rotation for this week. And Rupert?”
“Is perfectly recovered,” Josh reported. “Or so he would say. He’s still tight in the shoulders and drops his guard a bit in hand to hand combat, but I imagine by tomorrow evening he’ll be back in perfect condition.”
Tomorrow, that would be just in time to thank Hazel—which was sure to put Rupert in a sour mood given his dislike of her.
I went back to staring at my desk. “She’s mad because she says I don’t trust her.”
“Ah, we have returned to the topic of Hazel?” Josh thoughtfully tipped his head. “Perhaps she does not understand that the small degree to which you do trust her is rare.”
“Yes,” I agreed without any intonation. “A small degree.”
In reality I trusted Hazel far more than I wanted to.
A wizard’s blood reeked to vampires—a self-defense mechanism because if a vampire actually did manage to drink a wizard’s blood, they were then immune to that wizard’s magic. The magic in the wizard’s blood, however, was not very amiable, and acted as built in protection. As long as the wizard didn’t trust the vampire, their blood would taste so rancid and disgusting that no vampire would be able to swallow. On the flip side, as long as a vampire didn’t trust the wizard, the wizard’s blood would smell like a rotting carcass, and if the vampire tried to drink it anyway, they’d get sick.
It was a tactic Hazel had used to her advantage before. When fighting a crazed, Unclaimed vampire she’d smeared her blood across its face, making it gag and stop attacking her.
Unfortunately for me, Hazel smelled amazing. It was difficult to pin down because she didn’t even smell like prey. Rather, she smelled how sunlight used to feel before I was a vampire and it sapped my strength. Warm, caressing, and beautiful.
As delectable as her scent was, it was a dangerous thing for me. Trust was dangerous. The only silver lining to this was no one had any way of suspecting just how much I really did trust her.
I sighed and dropped the depressing line of thought. “She wanted an apology, then said it wasn’t good enough. She said it wasn’t…” I frowned as I recalled her exact words. “Sincere?”
Josh blinked his red eyes at me, absolutely no help.
Maybe I should ask Celestina. But it weirdly seems like that would be admitting defeat—besides, Hazel is mad at her, as well, so Celestina obviously isn’t that much more advanced in this area than I am.
“You sent her away for her protection, but given the alliance you proposed to her, might I assume you believe it’s no longer needed?” Josh asked.
“She badly needs protection,” I said. “Because she’s an idiot who will run head first into a fight that doesn’t involve her just because she thinks it’s the ‘right thing to do’.” The distaste I held for the idea made me furrow my brow. “But I’m willing to admit she’s trained her underlings faster than I thought possible. She’s only had approximately two months, and already they were fighting as a unit and were able to hold up magic-made shields that were strong enough to repel a blast from a holy sword.”
“It was impressive,” Josh said.
It was more than impressive; it was a game changer. With House Medeis united, it would take far more than bullets to attack her. Although they had lower numbers, if Hazel kept training her people and herself—I hadn’t missed how massive her shield was; she’d come a long way since she last practiced in Drake Hall—they were actually the larger threat to fae.
Which was why the Night Court were more likely to attack Hazel at House Medeis now even if she had distanced herself from me, and there was no way I could allow that to happen.
I no longer needed to hold her at arm’s length—forcibly keeping her out wasn’t going to stop the Night Court from attacking her.
It irked me a little that all my extracurricular reading had been for naught—she didn’t need my protection since she had her own. But I was glad she’d be safe. Or safer, at least.
It’d be a relief, to welcome her back, actually. It made me sound like some sort of angst-ridden, newly-turned vampire, but I had missed her. A lot.
I abruptly stood. “She said I wasn’t sincere,” I repeated, recycling my previous observation. “So, I will drown her in apologies until she gets one that hits whatever vague requirement she’s settled on.” I smirked, pleased with the turn my thoughts had taken. “But I should be able to tip the scales in my favor with a bit of research. Call for Celestina…and Rupert.”
Chapter Eight
Hazel
I was grumpy when we arrived at Drake Hall. Or really, I was irritated with myself.
My lungs twisted weirdly in my chest, and my traitor of a heart had me feeling nervous.
Seriously, it was enough to make a girl enraged! I was justifiably mad at Killian and his Family—Josh and Celestina in particular.
While Julianne and Manjeet had smuggled my beloved katana to me—which I now very pointedly had hanging from my sword belt—Celestina and Josh, the two vampires I was closest to, had followed Killian’s orders and kicked me out without even a goodbye. Heck, sour-faced Rupert—who hated me—had even broken his orders to confirm that Killian had sent me away for my safety and had performed a raid on the Night Court to distract them while I attacked Mason—their ally—and reclaimed House Medeis.